Friday Post-Game 1/21

January 22nd, 2011

First things first, the announced crowd of 18,056 here at the Wells Fargo Center was the largest to ever see a WBS Penguins game and the 10th-largest in the 75-year history of the AHL. A pretty impressive showing by Philadelphia-area hockey fans.

I’m told vouchers for tickets to tonight’s game were included in the Flyers Santa Sacks, which are popular Christmas gifts, and I’d put the actual butts-in-seats total around 14,000, but that’s nitpicking. This was a great crowd.

As for the game, you have to decide what you saw here tonight in a 4-2 Adirondack Phantoms win over the Penguins.

Were the Phantoms playing inspired hockey in front of a huge crowd in the home of their NHL affiliate or were the Penguins just bad?

I’m sure it’s a combination of the two, but I think it was at least as much from Column B as Column A.

There were more than a few occasions where the Penguins were nonchalant in the D zone and unnecessarily fancy in the offensive zone. The power play was back to being terrible, failing to score in 1:32 of 4-on-3 time, 1:11 of 5-on-3 time and giving up a shorthanded goal. The 40-16 shots advantage was mostly a mirage.

All that said, there was a moment where WBS could have pulled away and won this game.

They were getting outplayed in the second period but tied the score 2-2 late on a pretty Keven Veilleux goal. Bryan Lerg won a faceoff and Carl Sneep gathered the puck at the right point while Veilleux got open in the high slot. He was gliding away from the pass as he received it, and one-timed it past Michael Leighton.

Then the Penguins came out and peppered Leighton with shots in the first eight minutes of the third period, outshooting the Phantoms 8-1 during that stretch, but Leighton stood his ground.

Leighton is a fan favorite in this building, and he did nothing to disappoint his public tonight.

Anyway, a tripping call on Joe Vitale at 8:38 killed the Penguins’ momentum, and with 1:30 left, Stefan Legein jammed a puck into John Curry’s pads, the rebound kicked all the way out to Erik Gustafsson at the right point and Michael Ryan redirected the ensuing point shot in for the winning goal.

I wrote a column a few weeks ago about how John Hynes is not Michel Therrien and he’s not likely to rip his team in public. This was as close as you’ll get to that. Two quotes from him post-game:

– “I think at the end of the day, Adirondack deserved to win the game. They got the goal late and we got what we deserved.”

– “In general tonight, we didn’t have the work habits and the attention to detail that we needed to play with.”

The Arena Bar & Grill speech it’s not, but I’m sure Hynes got his point across during and after this one.

Finally, I’d like to pass along a Scott Stuccio Stat of the Day ™ in the form of a trivia question. Now that Steve Wagner missed tonight’s game, who is the only Penguins player to appear in all 43 games this season?

Don’t look it up. That would be super weak. I’ll post the answer in the comments after I make the drive home from Philly.

The Nailers only played with 14 skaters. Out for the weekend with injuries are Alex Smigelski and Ben Street. Two of the 14 are fill-in players signed today – John May who spent a little time in Toledo and Mike Thomson who has spent the season with the “single A” New York Aviators in the Federal Hockey League. Thomson figured in with an assist on Bedard’s Game-Winning Goal.

Wheeling travels to Trenton tomorrow night and then plays the Devils one more time Sunday afternoon however that matchup is in Atlantic City. Let’s hope the ice will be ready.

JBombulie

You got it, Pensfan26. Zach Sill.

Bla_Razor

@nailersfan66
How many skaters are the ECHL teams allowed to dress for a game? I’ve seen in some boxscores that there are fewer skaters than in the NHL?

dave

No AHL live on last nights game but I listened to it. Sounds like Hitchinson had a tough game. Out there for all 4 goals against. We have to start protecting the puck on the power play or we might be better off refusing them.

BAE

@dave
Better off refusing them. I’ve said that in past years but was hoping not this year. Is the team starting to fall into comfort with the wins so far and letting up? I hope not. But we do feel this way on every loss. Hey! Let’s Go Pens!!!!!

nailersfan66

ECHL teams are allowed to dress 2 goalies and 16 skaters for a total of 18 players, 2 less than AHL/NHL squads.

wbshockeyfan

sounds like AHL live his been dropping the ball several times this year?

BAE

The reason they gave me was they do not put their equipment in non-ahl buildings and therefore can’t provide the feed. I say BUNK. It is simply connecting a box to a internet line for them to get the stuff. Now, the line may be fiber or copper, but it is a simple thing. Very simple and if the AHL wanted it, you know neulion would do it. Let’s start a class action suit because the AHL advertises it without an asteric as EVERY game. And I pay for 40 away games and I would pay for a home game when it is called home, like in Pittsbugh. But this game the other night was away and I was cheated out of the 40 I paid for already. And today has been one of those days when I feel like screaming.

moonbogmama

@BAE, I was told the same thing that they were not hooked up in Pittsburgh & in Atlantic City but I know quite a few people that received a free pass to watch any game for any team which is at least some kind of compensation for missing a game you have already paid for.

jbfrogg

@ BAE, not that Im not saying you have a point – but venting on this page will do nothing – you need to email Neulion. And as for ‘its just and internet line’ – I do work for one of the phone companies here – and I know that these things arent cheap to put in just for a night…it prob would be several hunder dollars to install – it is a much high speed bandwidth line than you have for your house – and in those kinda things unless they own it, they cant just jump on something the arena has- for a one night thing, I highly doubt they would make their investment back. Remember, it is all going to come down to profit margins.

nailersfan66

Desantis has been sent to Wheeling. He will meet the team tonight in Trenton.

Wheeling also signed F Alec “Corporal” Kirschner from the Federal League. He spent time last year in the IHL with Flint, playing alongside such memorable names as Bryan Smolinski and yes… Chris Bogas.

37_Ina_row

@nailerfan

Looks like they may need to sign a backup goalie for tomorrow. Theissen left early tonight with what looked like maybe a knee injury.

A winner of first-place honors in the blogging category of the 2012 Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors awards, Penguins Insider was created to give local hockey fans an interactive, in-depth way to follow the team they so passionately support. The blog's author, beat writer Jonathan Bombulie, has been covering the team since its inception in 1999. Contact him at jbombulie@aol.com

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